Stephen Bradberry

Chicago native Stephen Bradberry, a veteran community organizer and executive director of Alliance Institute, Inc, has worked with low- and moderate-income families and individuals for 18 years. His work has centered on organizing public interest campaigns to actively involve low-income families in addressing the social problems they face everyday. He has led campaigns promoting a living wage, preventing predatory lending, lead poisoning prevention in children, and increasing voter participation.

A graduate of Dillard University, Bradberry connected with the Umoja Committee, which produces the Celebration of the African American Child each spring at Congo Square. Working as a community organizer, Bradberry led efforts to institute living wage legislation, orchestrated a successful campaign to win prohibition of dry-sanding of lead-based paint in New Orleans and blood screening for at-risk children, and worked tirelessly on behalf of New Orleans’ displaced poor in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Bradberry has also worked to coordinate national campaigns to improve the quality of life and enfranchise low- and moderate-income families and individuals across the United States.

In 2005, Mrs. Ethyl Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy presented Bradberry with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his efforts on behalf of the poor. At the event, then-Senator Barack Obama congratulated Bradberry for his work to defend the rights of the poor in New Orleans, saying, "You deserve this day in the sun," and noting that Bradberry’s social activism plays to Robert Kennedy's vision of a better world: "Somewhere there's always been people like Steve Bradberry who believe that this isn't the way it's supposed to be. People who believe that while evil and suffering will always exist, this is a country that has been fueled by small miracles and boundless dreams."

In 2009, Mr. Bradberry visited the White House at the invitation of the President and Mrs. Obama. A St.Clair Drake Distinguished Alumnus of Dillard University, he is also currently working internationally to assist at-risk communities on the European Continent.

Most recently, Mr. Bradberry played the primary role in assuring that community issues following the BP oil disaster became the centerpiece of the Gulf Regional Health Outreach Program (GRHOP). GRHOP will provide access to health care across 17 counties/parishes in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida that were impacted by the disaster.